The invention lies in the field of conveyor technology, and relates to a conveyor system according to the preamble of the independent patent claim. The conveyor system serves for conveying printed products, in particular newspapers, magazines, brochures or parts thereof.
Known conveyor systems for the application in field of printer's shops, in particular with regard to mailroom technology, with whose help printed products are to be conveyed in a held manner, are usually chain transporters, thus have a revolvingly driven conveyor member in the form of a chain, on which gripper elements are arranged at regular distances, with which the printed products are gripped and conveyed. A suitable design of the chain, in particular with chain links which are capable of rolling and roll along in a suitable channel, permit the realization of revolving paths or conveyor paths extending in three dimensions with such chain transporters. It is also simply possible with such chain transporters, to convey the printed products conveyed in a held manner, or the gripper elements used for this, in a very accurate sequence. High demands with regard to accuracy are particularly placed on the gripping and the releasing of the printed products by way of the gripper elements and for the processing of the printed products during the conveying. The disadvantages of the chain transporters, as the case may be, lie in the fact that they are relatively expensive, and the distances of the gripper elements on a predefined chain may only be changed in a very restricted manner.
In other technical fields, it is counted as belonging to the state of the art, to use conveyor systems based on cables for the conveyor purposes, not only for the relatively large scale transport of humans (cable cars, ski lifts), but also for the small scale transport of articles. In such a conveyor system, carrier elements (chairs, gondolas etc) or catches, which are to be loaded with the people or goods to be conveyed, or to which the persons or goods are to be coupled, are fastened on a pull cable. The cable thereby first and foremost serves as a pull means, but may also simultaneously carry the carrier elements and determine their revolving path. If the cable merely serves as a pull means, then the carrier elements usually comprise runner rollers which roll along on suitable carrier rails determining the revolving path of the carrier elements. Usually, the revolving path of the cable or of the carrier elements runs in a plane, but systems with three-dimensional revolving paths are also known. The carrier elements usually have articulated connections between the cable and the loading region, in a manner such that the loading region always hangs freely from the cable, thus is equally directed relative to gravity, so that the carrier elements always have the same spatial position at regions of the peripheral path, which are directed differently with regard to gravity.
One example of a goods conveyor system of the above mentioned type is described in the publication GB-873921.
Applications of conveyor systems functioning with a pull cable and carrier elements fastened thereon, in the field of printer's shops and in particular with regard to mailroom technology are not known. The corresponding tasks, as briefly described above, are usually assumed by chain transporters with grippers. A reason for this is probably the high precision which has likewise been discussed above, and which is necessary with regard to the spatial attitude and position of the grippers or the printed products which are conveyed held by the grippers. The man skilled in the art assumes that such accuracy is very simple to accomplish with a chain transporter.